


The body guard

by katiebuttercup



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 21:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19118137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katiebuttercup/pseuds/katiebuttercup
Summary: Modern au of Jaime leaving Brienne for Cersei.Jaime just wants to talk to Brienne; Sansa is determined that’s never going to happen





	1. Chapter 1

He sees her first haoled as she is in the fluorescent bulb lightening of the bar. She’s in deep conversation with Arya, she’s smiling and laughing and something unclenches in Jaime’s heart. She’s okay. 

Unfortunately for him Sansa sees him first and before he can take a step in Brienne’s direction the tall redhead is in his way. She’s smiling but it has a razor edge to it. 

“I think you meant to go that way,” Sansa says sweetly, pointing behind his left shoulder at the door.

Jaime doesnt have the energy to fight Sansa but he’s suddenly aware that other people have started to turn their heads, Jon and Ygritte and Dany and Margery and Bran and Robb The wolf pack turning on the lone lion.

“I just want to talk to her,” Jaime says, he won’t beg, he’s a Lannister.

“Nope!” Sansa’s smile doesn’t falter an inch and Jaime becomes annoyed. 

“Maybe we should let Brienne decide,” he says through clenched teeth. 

“Let’s not,” Ygritte says, “lets beggar off and leave her alone,”

He’s surrounded, with no where to turn, he locks a snarl behind his teeth. 

“This isn’t over!” He promises Sansa.

“Oh it really is,” the Stark girl says, “don’t let the door hit you on the way out,”


	2. Chapter 2

Sansa is so mad that she channels it into cleaning. When her anger is finally ebbing the apartment is spotless. 

She can’t believe Jaime is back and threatening to obliterate the fragile peace that had settled over the gaping maw of brienne’s heartbreak when Jaime left in the middle of the night full of bullshit excuses to crawl back to his ex. 

Well if Jaime thinks he’s getting anywhere close to Brienne he’s got another thing coming. She may not be six foot and the body of an Amazon but she does yoga and has good core strength. Also she’s fairly certain she could punch him in the face at a stretch. 

It had taken Sansa six long months to finally burrow her way through Brienne’s walls until Brienne didn’t look surprised every time Sansa invited her out or called her to hang out. She’d been hurt in the past, Sansa could figure that out-getting information from Brienne about her childhood was like pulling blood from a stone-or making her sister Arya wearing a dress.

But finally, finally Brienne trusts her and Sansa knows she can trust her implicitly and she’s not going to let Jaime Lannister ruin it. 

She briefly wonders if she should let Brienne decide, she’s not naive enough to think that Jaime will turn tail and slink back into the night, the man had been clearly on a mission, Brienne might be hurt if she found out Sansa lied about Jaime, but she remembers the night she had found Brienne sobbing in her room after Jaime left, her brilliant, special friend had been destroyed and Sansa wanted to make sure that never happened again. Jaime apparently didn’t know what we wanted and she wasn’t going to let Jaime use Brienne until he got his head in place. 

 

If Jaime wanted a fight Sansa was more than willing to give him one.


	3. Chapter 3

In the end Sansa capitulates because she has to. In the past Brienne has been left in the dark, overlooked and under valued, the butt of the joke and Sansa won’t do that to her best friend. Unfortunately it’s as painful as she thought it would be. Brienne’s broad, homely face cant keep the hurt buried, her big blue eyes water dangerously and Sansa feels the fire of her fury lurching up in her again.

“You don’t have to see him,” Sansa reminds her firmly, “you have every right to tell him to bugger right off

“I can’t do that,” Brienne says miserably, she’s a godamn hufflepuff, Sansa thinks lovingly. 

“Maybe if I talk to him he’ll leave, that’s what he wanted right? To talk? Sooner I let him the sooner he can go back to-to” Brienne’s breath hitches, and Sansa can hear the tears underneath and she wants to cut Jaime’s dick off with nail scissors. Brienne’s heart was still so tender, but she was willing to talk to jaime even now.

“What if he hurts you again?”

Brienne shrugs one massive shoulder-the best place for a hug Sansa had found. “What could he possibly say to me that could be worse than finding him packing in the middle of the night to go back to fucking his sister?”

Sansa winces at the raw honesty. “What if he says he wants to get back together with you, what if he just wants to make himself feel better so he can sleep at night,”

“He’s sleeping with his sister,” Brienne says, “if that doesn’t keep him awake at night then I doubt my tears did.”

“I just...i thought he was different,” Sansa says helplessly. They’d all been put through the ringer relationship wise, except perhaps Arya who seemed to keep Gendry at bay with the nearest of wills. Like she wanted to prove her heart was invulnerable.

“So did I,” Brienne says, “but we were wrong...I was wrong.” 

“What if he tries to get back with you?”

“He won’t”

“But what if he does? He and Cersei seem on the outs every other week what if this week he decides to try to get back with you,”

“He won’t,” Brienne assures her, “and I won’t let him. Besides I’m totally over him.” That could be the biggest lie Sansa has ever heard, especially from Brienne. She wouldn’t be over it, not from Jaime, perhaps not ever. 

“I am!” Brienne insists when she catches sansa’s critical eye. “He...I begged him to stay Sansa, I...I know I was a fool for Renly, I know everyone laughed at me then, but I...I had never wanted anything in my life more than I wanted Jaime to stay with me, to not go back to that toxic cesspool of Kings Landing, I have never wanted anything more than I wanted him to choose me, but Sansa he didn’t. He never would. I didn’t see it then but I see it now. And that means he can’t hurt me anymore.”

Sansa realises she’s crying when Brienne wraps her big, wonderful arms around her, it’s just like Brienne to comfort other people, even when it’s her pain. 

“Do you want me to call him?” Sansa asks. Brienne deleted his number exactly eight days after he had left.

“Sure.” Brienne says thickly


	4. Chapter 4

A crowded Starbucks isn’t exactly how Jaime pictured seeing Brienne again but she had been firm, she wanted somewhere neutral, impersonal and it didn’t get much more impersonal than a chain coffee shop. He glances nervously at the teen girl at her laptop, close enough that unless he and Brienne were whispering could overhear but she seemed engrossed in her work and she had earbuds in.

Brienne settles onto a stool opposite him, the sugary monstrosity in her hand a testament to her friendship with Sansa, once she would have settled for a cup of tea.

“Thanks for seeing me,” Jaime says in lieu of having anything else to say. Now he’s sitting here all his pre planned words have evaporated.

“No problem,” Brienne says neutrally, she sips at her drink, the delicacy of her movements at odds with her large ungainly frame. 

“I’m here because...” Jaime says 

“I know why you’re here,” Brienne interrupts, stirring the cream on top of her drink. 

“You do?”

“You want it all,” Brienne says there is no intonation in her voice but it feels like a slap.

“It all?” Jaime retreats unnerved.

Brienne nods, and her blue eyes pin him to his chair. “You want to be with Cersei but you want things to be cool with us so that you don’t feel guilty anymore, cover all your bases, get everything you want and not have to feel lousy,”

“That’s not it at all!” Jaime protests but it’s weak, because she’s right, leaving Brienne the way he had had been awful and even back with Cersei it burned away at what was left of his conscious. 

“I’m not going to absolve you Jaime so you can skip off into the sunset with Cersei and not feel bad about leaving me, I like to think I’m a good person but I’m not looking for sainthood. You want Cersei fine, she’s the most important person in your life? Lovely, but you broke my heart Jaime and I’m sorry if it’s inconvenient for you for me to feel betrayed and hurt but that’s how I feel.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Jaime tries. “Honestly I thought I could stay with you, I had every intention of seeing it through with you...”

“Until Cersei clicked her fingers and it was convenient for you to come back to her and save her from the financial mess she got herself in by the way.” 

Jaime closes his eyes, “I know,” he grinds out between clenched teeth.

Brienne looks out of the window, her jaw tight and she blinks rapidly. 

 

“I’m really sorry you’re having a hard time with this Jaime I truly am and I’m not dragging the pain out to make it hard for you or for you to come back, it is what it is and I’m sorry but your guilt is yours, it’s not my responsibility to make you feel better, not anymore, you left in the middle of the night and you weren’t even going say goodbye, and if you want to know the truth I’m still in my living room watching you walk away from me and it still hurts, I’m not ready to make nice, I don’t know if I will ever be.” She pushes her chair back, and he can see the tears pooling, but she keeps them at bay this time.

“Goodbye Jaime, and good luck,” and then she is gone. Again.


End file.
